ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KHOA HỌC XÃ HỘI VÀ NHÂN VĂN

Tô Minh Thanh

GIÁO TRÌNH NHÀ XUẤT BẢN ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA
TP HỒ CHÍ MINH — 2007

iii

LỜI NÓI ĐẦU

Giáo trình Ngữ nghóa học tiếng Anh được biên soạn một
cách có hệ thống, dựa trên cơ sở tham khảo có chọn lọc những tư
liệu của nước ngồi, kết hợp với kinh nghiệm giảng dạy nhiều năm

Notational symbols vii
1 INTRODUCTION 9
1.1 What is semantics? 9
1.2 Semantics and its possible included aspects 10
2 WORD MEANING 12
2.1 Semantic features 12
2.2 Componential analysis 20
2.3 Semantic fields 21
2.4 Lexical gaps 25
2.5 Referent, reference and sense 26
2.6 Denotation and connotation 30
2.7 Multiple senses of lexical items 34
2.8 Figures of speech 36
2.9 Hyponymy 57
2.10 Synonymy 63
2.11 Antonymy 67
2.12 Homonymy 72
2.13 Polysemy 78

vi

2.14 Ambiguity 81
2.15 Anomaly 87
3 SENTENCE MEANING 91
3.1 Proposition, utterance and sentence 91
3.2 Sentence types (classified according to
truth value) 96
3.3 Paraphrase 99
3.4 Entailment 104
4 UTTERANCE MEANING 109

op: optional
opA of Means: optional adjunct of means
Pro: pronoun
PP: prepositional phrase
RP: Received Pronunciation
S: sentence
Vgrp: verb group
VP: verb phrase
* : unaccepted form

v

: related in some way
[ ] : embedded unit
/ : or
⇒ : one-way dependence
⇔ : two-way dependence
= : be equivalent to
+ : with the semantic feature specified
−
−−
− : without the semantic feature specified
±
±±
± : with or without the semantic feature specified 9

Section


The semantic meaning of ‘I’m on a diet’ in (1) is ‘I want to
lose weight by eating the food which is not rich in fat, sugar, etc.’
The pragmatic meaning of ‘I’m on a diet’ in (1) is ‘I don’t want
any piece of cake’ or ‘I’m afraid that I have to refuse your invitation.’
(2) Tom: ‘Do you like the wine I picked out?’
Gina: ‘It’s Italian, isn’t it?’
The semantic meaning of ‘It’s Italian, isn’t it?’ in (2) is ‘Is it
right that the wine is made in Italy?’
The pragmatic meaning of ‘It’s Italian, isn’t it?’ in (2) is ‘I
don’t like the wine you picked out.’
1.2 Semantics and its possible included aspects
“Semantics is a technical term used to refer to the study of
meaning, and since meaning is part of language, semantics is
part of linguistics. Unfortunately, ‘meaning’ covers a variety of
aspects of language, there is no general agreement about the
nature of meaning, what aspects of it may properly be
included in semantics, or the way in which it should be
described.” [Palmer, 1981: 1] This little textbook will try to show
three main aspects that are commonly considered as included in
semantics: word meaning (or, to be more precise, lexical
meaning) [Lyons, 1995: 33], sentence meaning and utterance
meaning.
11
In semantics it is necessary to make a careful distinction between utterances
and sentences. In particular we need some way of making it clear when we are
discussing sentences and when utterances. We adopt the convention that anything

A: ‘How is the pastor?’
B: ‘He is remarried.’
Because of the nature of the subject and the variety of views
on semantics and its possible included aspects, the little
textbook cannot hope to be more than an introductory survey.

written between single quotation marks represents ‘an utterance’, and
anything italicized
represents
a sentence
or (similarly abstract)
part of a
sentence
, such as
a phrase
or
a word
:
‘She is not remarried’ represents an utterance.
She is not remarried
represents a sentence.
Married
represents a word conceived as part of a sentence.

12

Section
2
22
2

Semantic features are also referred to as semantic components or semantic
properties.

13

A word that is [+human] is [+animate].
That is why [+animate] need not be specified as a semantic
feature of
father
,
girl
,
professor
, etc. since the semantic feature
can be inferred from [+human].
Some redundancy rules infer negative semantic
features. Thus, semantic features are often shown in the form of
binary oppositions, which can be stated in terms of pluses and
minuses (that is, [+] and [−
−−
−]):
If
father
is [+human], it is therefore [−
−−
−inhuman];
If
father
is [+male], it is therefore [−
−−

,
hairdresser
, etc. all share the same semantic feature
[+professional].
Ex2:
Mother
,
father
,
son
,
daughter
,
brother
,
sister
,
grandparent
,
aunt
,
uncle
, etc. are all [+kinship].

14

2.1.2.3 The same semantic feature can occur in words of
different parts of speech. In other words, words of different
parts of speech may share the same semantic feature.
For example, [+female] is part of the meaning of the noun

(1) is strange, or semantically anomalous, because this
sentence represents a contradiction:
brother
is [+having at least
one sibling] while
an only child
is [+having no other sibling];
(2) is semantically anomalous for a similar reason:
bachelor
is
[+male] whereas
pregnant
is [+female].
Here, Fromkin and Rodman also cite Noam Chomsky’s famous
classic example of semantically anomalous sentences:
(3)
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
.
This sentence seems to obey all the syntactic rules of English:
its subject is c
olorless green ideas
and its predicate is
sleep
furiously
; but there is obviously something semantically wrong

15

with the sentence. The adjective
colorless

.
How can a living being sleep when he is full of violent anger?
In conclusion, knowing all the possible semantic features of a
word enables us to combine semantically compatible words
together to form larger but meaningful linguistic units such as
phrases, clauses and sentences.
Fromkin and Rodman [1993:134] also believe that “because
we know the semantic properties of words, we know when two
words are
antonyms
,
synonyms
or
homonyms
, or are

unrelated
in meaning.”
Exercise 1: For each group of words given below, state what
semantic features are shared by the (a) words and the (b)
words, and what semantic features distinguish between the
classes of (a) words and (b) words. The first one is done as an
example.

3
Collocations are regular combinations of words, e.g.
by accident
and
strong tea


The (a) and (b) words are ___________________________
The (a) words are __________________________________
The (b) words are _________________________________
4. (a)
table, pencil, cup, house, ship, car

(b)
milk, tea, wine, beer, water, soft drink

The (a) and (b) words are ____________________________
The (a) words are __________________________________
The (b) words are __________________________________
5. (a)
book, temple, mountain, road, tractor
(b)
idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear17

The (a) and (b) words are ____________________________
The (a) words are __________________________________
The (b) words are __________________________________
6. (a)
rose, lily, tulip, daisy, sunflower, violet

(b)
ash
,
oak

8. (a)
walk, run, skip, jump, hop, swim

(b)
fly, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang-glide
The (a) and (b) words are ____________________________
The (a) words are __________________________________
The (b) words are __________________________________
9. (a)
ask, tell, say, talk, converse

(b)
shout, whisper, mutter, drawl, holler18

The (a) and (b) words are ____________________________
The (a) words are __________________________________
The (b) words are __________________________________
10. (a)
alive, asleep, awake, dead, half-dead, pregnant

(b)
depressed, bored, excited, upset, amazed,
surprised
The (a) and (b) words are ____________________________
The (a) words are __________________________________
The (b) words are __________________________________
Exercise 2: Identify the semantic features in

Plod
: _____________________________________________
10.
Ewe
:_____________________________________________
11.
Fly
: _____________________________________________

19

12.
Stallion
: _________________________________________
13.
Police-officer
: ___________________________________
14.
Beauty
: __________________________________________
15.
Imagine
: _________________________________________
16.
Doe
: ____________________________________________
17.
Drive
: ___________________________________________
18.

: _______________________________________
28.
Honesty
: ________________________________________
29.
Maid
: ___________________________________________
30.
Spinster
: ________________________________________
Exercise 3: How can you distinguish the words given in the
following table from one another, considering their semantic
features?

20

Malay English Vietnamese Chinese
anh huynh
brother
ñeä
em
muoäi
sadara

sister
chò tyû
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________

2.3 Semantic fields
2.3.1 Definition
A semantic field
4
is “the organization of related words
and expressions into a system which shows their
relationship to one another.” [Richards et al, 1987: 53]
A semantic field can also be defined as “a set of words with
identifiable semantic affinities.” [Finegan, 1994: 164]
Ex1. The semantic field of kinship terms:
father
,
mother
,
brother
,
sister
,
uncle
,
aunt
, etc.
Ex2. The semantic field of adjectives describing human
emotional states:
angry
,
sad
,
happy
,

22

• Types of fruit:
apples
,
oranges
,
grapes
,
bananas
,
pears
,
plums
, etc.
• Pieces of furniture:
seats
,
tables
,
beds
,
storage
, etc.
• Terms of colour:
blue
,
red
,
yellow

,
peer
,
squint
,
stare
, etc.
• Ways in which a liquid escapes from its container
6
:
drip
,
leak
,
ooze
,
run
,
seep
, etc.

5

Gaze
= look long and steadily (at somebody/something) usually in surprise or
admiration:
She
gazed at

me

the wall, peer

through
the gap, peer

over

one’s spectacles, etc.

Squint
(at, through, up, etc,) = look (at somebody/something) with eyes half shut or
turn sideways, or through narrow opening: squint in the light of sunshine, squint
through the letter box.

Stare
= look (at somebody/something) with the eyes wide open in a fixed gaze (in
astonishment, wonder, fear, etc.):
They all
stared

in/with amazement.
It’s rude to
stare.

6

Drip
(allow liquid to) fall in drops:
Rain was
dripp

= (allow a liquid to) flow:
The River Rhine
runs into the North Sea.
Water was
runn
ing
all over the bathroom floor.
The bathroom floor was
runn
ing
with water.
Seep
(through/into/out of something; through/out) = (of a liquid) flow slowly and in small
quantities through a substance:
Water
seep
ed
through the roof of the tunnel.

23

(c) Terms describing people whose weight is below
normal:
7

thin
,
bony
,
skinny


Oil is
seep
ing
through a crack in the tank.

“Drip, leak, ooze, run, seep indicate the way in which a liquid escape from a
container or tap. Most (not seep) also indicate the way in which a container or tap
allows a liquid to escape. 1 Drip = (allow sth to) fall in regular drops:
Water is
dripping from the pipe. The pipe is dripping
(
water
). 2 Leak = (allow sth to) get
out (through a hole in sth):
Wine is leaking from the barrel. The barrel is leaking

(
wine
). 3 Ooze = (allow sth to) move slowly (out of sth) because thick:
Blood is
oozing from the wound. The wound is oozing
(
blood
). 4 Run = (allow sth to) flow
continuously (from sth):
Water is running from the tap. The tap is running
. 5
Seep = move slowly (through a small opening in sth) because thick:
Oil is seeping


(e) Items which form pairs or trios of synonyms:
smart/bright/intelligent
,
conserve/preserve/safeguard
,
fix/repair/mend
,
kind/sort/type/variety
,
happy/glad
, etc.
(f) Items grouped as an activity or a process:
• Do the housework:
clean the rooms
,
do the washing
,
iron
the clothes
,
get the food
,
prepare a meal
,
wash up
, etc.
• Do research:
make hypotheses
,

hostess
,

l
andlady
,
madam
, etc.
• Age:
grown-ups
,
adults
,
elderly people
,
middle-aged
people
,
teenagers
,
children
,
infants
,
babies
, etc.
• Age

and sex:
horse

Exercise 4: Organise the given words (and probably those of your
own) into three semantic fields:
shirts
,
end
,
forward(s)
,
new
,

hats
,
lend
,
coats
,
shorts
,
beginning
,
trousers
,
amble
,
out
,25

__________________________________________________
3._________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
2.4 Lexical gaps
“The absence of a word in

a particular place

in
a lexical
field
of a language” is called a lexical gap. [Richards et al, 1987:
164]
For example, in English there is no singular noun that covers
bull
,
cow
and
calf
either as
horse
covers
stallion
,
mare
and
foal
or as
goat
covers

your classmates, your teacher, any thing you can see in the
classroom right now, the idealistic working conditions you have
ever dreamed of, etc. that is talked about.
Several words, especially the so-called function words
8
, have
no obvious referents:
the
,
could
,
in
,
since
,
and
, etc.
2.5.1.2 The reference of a word
9
or a linguistic expression is
the relationship between that word or expression and the thing
(book), the action (read), the event (graduate from university),
the quality (sincerity), etc. it refers to.

8
It is commonly believed that function words like prepositions (
of
,
in
, etc.),

the house that belongs to Peter
(in the Eng. language) REFERENCE (in the real world)
2.5.1.3 The sense
10
of a word or a linguistic expression
11

shows the internal relationship between that word or expression
and others in the vocabulary of a language.
Ex1.
Teacher
and
student
have the sense relationship of the former
is
the one who gives a lesson
and the latter is
the one
who has the lesson given by the former
.

Ex2.
A dog is chasing a cat
has some sense. However,
a dog is
human
has no sense.

Ex3.
The King of Vietnam is bald